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On grandparents day at grandchildren school

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LOCK-DOWN THE ADVANTAGES AND LACK OF APPRECIATION I have been locked down since 9th March 2020 away from my family. In other words I can safely say I have been quarantined for this period. As a retired person I cannot get a letter to go to work although I operate a business in another town. Inter city travel is banned so there I am in my grandparents corner where I have everything in one room. My toilet and shower in one corner, my kitchenette in the other corner, a space for... a two-seater sofa for my lounge and dining and adjoining space which is the bedroom with its double bed, chest of drawers and a wardrobe. Excellent space for my self quarantine until when I can travel. In spite of this isolated solitude life I have observed and enjoyed the benefits of being protected from the pandemic itself and time to watch events world over that are taking place and also being exposed to the change that the world is undergoing due to this pandemic. I have learnt that no matter how much we claim to be civilized, educated, wealthy, intelligent etc there is a greater force that can wipe all of us in seconds from the face of this world. All our claims of knowledge are vain and the saying that knowledge exists outside the knower proved true. If humans had power over knowledge we would by now have found the cure for this pandemic. In fact we should have known when it was going to come and prepared ourselves for it and no single human life lost. Regrettably the knowledge of how to cure this pandemic exists somewhere but we the mortals have not yet discovered it. However, I also observed the lack of appreciation of the lock-down policy as people concentrate more on how to make the dollar to put food on the table. The few times I went to the shops I observed people who did not care about the social distancing and the use of masks. Some made derogatory comments about the measures,revealing their lack of knowledge of what they were talking about. One then wonders what would have happened had we in Zimbabwe been hit by this pandemic at the rate it attacked China and America. With such negative attitude we would die like flies that have been sprayed with an insecticide. With gatherings banned you get people organizing demonstrations. for God's sake this is not time to pone peoples lives for personal gains. This is time to put our heads together and come up with ideas of how to protect lives and prepare for the inevitable change that is going to be there post pandemic. FOOD FOR THOUGHT .

Do we still need Petrol Attendants/ Are they not the major cause of Chaos at Petrol Stations? On the 2nd of December 2019 I decided to join a petrol queue at a Petrol Station near my home in Harare since there was a Petrol tanker offloading petrol. The queue was some 120 to 150 meters long which meant if the attendants worked in normal and professional manner in less than an hour from the time they started serving I would be served and gone. I joined the queue at 5.30 am and ...Continue reading

Is it the Price or Availability that matter; The situation currently obtaining in our country in respect of the goods and services and crisis of expectation is both confusing and ridiculous. I will take for example fuel, vehicle spare parts and bread. Before January 12, 2019 increase of fuel price it was very difficult for an ordinary person without connections with garage attendants to get fuel from the garage pump.Instead the attendants would direct you to a street vendor ...where it was now selling at USD6 per liter whereas it was supposed to be USD1.10 per liter at the garage pump. At this time the USD was 1:1 with ZWD. When the price was raised to USD3 per liter at the pump there were widespread riots about this increase. But who was rioting? For what? That is what was going on in my mind. I observed that those who were on the forefront were young boys and girls who do not own a bicycle let alone a car. For me who owns a car I was saying to myself does this price make the fuel easily available at the pump. If so well and good. I understood the impact on the prices of other products. But fuel is not the only component in the pricing of goods, there are other factors. So I continue to reason with myself. I also ask myself why riot when we were already buying this fuel on the street market at double the newly gazetted price? I found the answer in the age group that was on the forefront of he riots. They were the street vendors who realized that if the new price made it possible for motorist to get fuel at the pump their street vending business would collapse. The scenario was the same when bread became scarce in the supermarket but was easily available on the street tuck shop where it was now selling at between $7 and $10. You go to Kaguvi street the street for vehicle spare parts you observe the youths standing on the pavement advertising goods they are selling but they don't have a shop. If you ask them for what you are looking for they disappear for some few minutes and reappear with the goods and an exorbitant.price. If you do not buy from them and decide to shop around on your own; you will find the shop where the young man would have collected the part, but lo behold the price would have been inflated between 5 to 10 times. This generation of youths are a menace unto themselves because they love to reap where they did not sow. If you are the kind of person who says as long as I got what I want you are promoting laziness among the youths. Get your goods and services from registered businesses and and we will end up with fairly priced goods and services and availability and employment will improve. When it comes to food let us buy from clean registered business to avoid disease like cholera and typhoid. Street businesses are a hazard both to our health and economy.